The Farmers’ Home Hotel, located on the Avon River in Northam, is a sibling hotel to the Premier Mill Hotel Katanning and forms an important part of our clients’ bold vision for tourism in the Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions.

Building on the success of the initial venture, the project breathes new life into the original 1866 hotel. The design approach responds to the Victorian era details of the heritage fabric with a contemporary interpretation of the period as an overlay of a new level of amenity and sophistication. We appreciate the grandeur of the buildings stone walls, wide hallways, arches, elaborate cornice mouldings, high ceilings, grand timber stair and have sought to retain, reveal and add to this character in a playful manner that celebrates the layering of old and new.

The hotel entrance lobby, distinguished by the generous arched doorway and marble tiled entry loggia, is accessed directly from the main street. It is imagined as a drawing room furnished around an original fireplace and includes a bespoke reception desk and leather chairs set on a golden carpet that gleams like a field of wheat in the sun. Dramatic contemporary pendant lights hang from the original plaster ceiling roses.

Our client delights in the layered history of the place and has incorporated the sharing of these stories in a number of enjoyable and incidental gestures throughout the project. The ‘Temperance Bar’ is one of the two hospitality offerings on site and was named in recognition of the hotels’ history with the Temperance movement. The small wine bar welcomes the public and has a stylish yet relaxed atmosphere with a ‘local’ wine list that champions the terroir of the Swan Valley through to the Great Southern region.

The shape of the building, which was added to over time, follows the broad curve of the road and as such the guest rooms vary in size, shape and aspect. A newly reconstructed verandah, carefully recreated from historical photographs, hugs the Fitzgerald St. side of the building. Some of the rooms open out onto this new verandah while other rooms have glimpses to the river.

The rooms are designed to complement the original features and existing materiality of the hotel, adding amenity without clutter. The walls are lined with a simple painted timber wall panelling that transitions into glazed timber partitions to the ensuites. The Baltic pine floorboards were retained, and a distinctive black boarder added to give definition to the spaces.

Our collaboration with furniture designer Paul Morris of Join allowed us to realise the design and fabrication of all in-room furniture. A series of solid timber and steel furniture components offer the flexibility to be configured to suit the varying room types, whilst contributing to an overall high-quality bespoke finish.

The newly restored hotel stands proudly in the main street once again fulfilling an important role in the daily life of the town, offering contemporary boutique hotel accommodation combined with welcoming country hospitality to visitors and locals alike.